Point72 Europe London LLP Sells 45,300 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Point72 Europe London LLP has reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 63.6%, now owning 25,900 shares valued at $8,082,000 after selling 45,300 shares in the first quarter.
• Insider trading activity has been noted, with CEO Mauro Macchi and insider Angela Beatty selling shares, representing a decrease in their respective ownership positions.
• Accenture reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings with an EPS of $3.49, beating analysts' estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, equating to a dividend yield of 2.3%.

Point72 Europe London LLP trimmed its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 63.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 25,900 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 45,300 shares during the period. Point72 Europe London LLP's holdings in Accenture were worth $8,082,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Accenture by 63.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 5.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after buying an additional 3,419,577 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 2,782.1% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $450,985,000 after buying an additional 1,395,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $225,217,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $353.76.

Accenture Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $2.41 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $253.76. The stock had a trading volume of 2,916,049 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,384,255. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $236.67 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The company has a market capitalization of $158.94 billion, a PE ratio of 20.20, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $271.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $300.18.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. The business's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Accenture Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.